Kristof, inspired after a summer trip in the Cascade mountains, ended the piece with a sarcastic invite for Congress to ditch their civic duties and spend five months hiking the Pacific Crest National Scenic Trail.

Wow, Oregon's trails must be pretty cool. In the wake of heavy-hitting news, they've managed to sneak into the Times. But they still haven't sneaked into Oregon's ongoing debate over management of federal "O&C" lands. So no matter what lawmakers decide to do with O&C lands, they should in any new forest legislation include allocations for wilderness trail restoration and maintenance in O&C counties.

Federal wilderness trails provide opportunities for the public to get outdoor exercise and enjoy the remote backcountry Oregon is so famous for. Trails reduce erosion and provide access to our most treasured and wildest outdoor destinations. The Wild Rogue, Mount Hood, Eagle Cap, Three Sisters, Mount Jefferson, the Strawberry Mountains -- the Kalmiopsis -- they're all famous wilderness areas with trails jeopardized by huge maintenance backlogs.

Those trails have provided memories that carry through generations, and a common place for a variety of outdoor users to enjoy America's "enduring resource." They even bring travelers into rural gateway communities looking to expand their tourism market.

Moreover, while attorneys and judges chew at whatever O&C legislation actually gets through Congress, allocations for trails would in the meantime put local youths to work through programs that already work. And putting young people to work and preparing them for college is what rural Oregon needs most -- and now.

So I wholeheartedly invite Oregon's congressional representatives and their staff to join me for a real hike on a real wilderness trail that was once popular by visitors and locals, but is now being lost after years of no maintenance. You have options: For a half-day, we can hike through thick brush to a premier mountain lake in the Siskiyou high country, or crawl over downed logs to an old-growth tree grove along a little-known wild river.

And if Congress can't come up a drop in the bucket to save Oregon's best wilderness trails using youth employment programs, you can help personally by pulling one end of a crosscut saw.